Introduction

The section Bellebbuono: improvvisamente il meteo a Napoli, curated by the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte for the exhibition South Rish and developed within the research activities of the PRIN-PNRR project, offers a journey through three centuries of observations, images, and instruments that have intertwined the history of the city with atmospheric and natural phenomena.
The exhibition highlights the role of Capodimonte’s astronomers, who were protagonists not only in the study of the sky but also in broader meteorological research: from auroras to volcanic eruptions, from climate chronicles to the first automatic measurements. It thus reveals the layering of scientific, artistic, and social perspectives that transformed “sudden weather” into shared knowledge and cultural heritage.
From rare auroras observed at unusually southern latitudes, to the eruptions of Vesuvius and the earthquakes that marked collective memory, up to the birth of a systematic meteorological tradition, the exhibition explores the multiple perspectives through which Naples interpreted the sky and the Earth: wonder, fear, curiosity, but also scientific rigor and the capacity for measurement. This history also includes the introduction of lightning rods, installed in Naples as early as the late eighteenth century, symbolizing a city that embraced electrical modernity and trusted science as a tool of protection and progress.
The astronomers of the Observatory played a decisive role in this story. They not only recorded celestial and atmospheric phenomena but also helped to build a true culture of meteorology: Carlo Brioschi initiated systematic series of observations and publications; Ernesto Capocci integrated barometric and thermometric data with magnetic and astronomical observations; Leopoldo del Re, Annibale de Gasparis, and Faustino Brioschi consolidated the editorial and experimental tradition of the Specola. At the same time, instruments such as barometers, thermographs, seismoscopes, and sunshine recorders transformed the perception of weather into objective, comparable traces, placing Naples within an international research network.
This tradition of observation and prevention continues today in the study of space weather: from solar storms to auroras, to the effects of coronal mass ejections on global technological infrastructures.
In this interplay of art, science, and memory, Bellebbuono shows how the city has learned to look at the sky and the Earth with different eyes: those of popular wonder and those of scientific precision. The ten panels on display thus narrate a fragile and profound landscape, in which the South becomes a privileged laboratory of observation and dissemination, capable of transforming sudden events into shared knowledge and cultural heritage.

___Mauro Gargano, Emilia Olostro Cirella & Clementina Sasso